destructive

English

Etymology

From Middle French destructif, from Latin destructivus, from past participle of destruere (“to tear down, destroy”) + -ivus.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈstɹʌktɪv/, /dɪˈstɹʊktɪv/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Adjective

destructive (comparative more destructive, superlative most destructive)

1. Causing destruction; damaging.
   • 1980 August 30, David Rothenberg, “A New York State of Confusion”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 6, page 5:

     The pastures are filled with gay political drop-outs, persons of reasonable intent who found the scene personally destructive.

   • 2013 February 14, Scott Tobias, “Film: Reviews: A Good Day To Die Hard”, in The Onion AV Club‎^[1]:

     After rescuing his estranged daughter in the last film, Live Free Or Die Hard, Willis heads to Russia to rescue his estranged son (Jai Courtney), a CIA agent on a mission to protect a whistleblower (Sebastian Koch) from a corrupt government official (Sergei Kolesnikov) with no shortage of destructive resources at his disposal.

2. Causing breakdown or disassembly.

   Catabolism is a destructive metabolism that involves the breakdown of molecules and release of energy.

3. (computing) Lossy; causing irreversible change.

   Blurring an image is a destructive operation, but rotating an image is not.

Synonyms

• calamitous
• catastrophic
• devastating
• disastrous
• eradicative
• harmful
• pernicious
• ruinous
• wrackful
• wreckful

Antonyms

• constructive
• nondestructive, non-destructive
• productive

Derived terms

• antidestructive
• autodestructive
• destructive backspace
• destructive criticism
• destructive distillation
• destructively
• destructiveness
• destructive read
• destructive sorites
• indestructive
• neurodestructive
• nondestructive
• non-destructive read
• omnidestructive
• self-destructive
• superdestructive
• undestructive

 

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *strew-‎ (0 c, 24 e)

Translations

causing destruction; damaging

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: կործանիչ (hy) (korcaničʿ), կործանարար (hy) (korcanarar)
• Bulgarian: разрушителен (bg) (razrušitelen)
• Catalan: destructiu
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: ničivý (cs), destruktivní (cs)
• Danish: destruktiv
• Dutch: destructief (nl), destructieve (nl), verwoestend (nl), verwoestende (nl)
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: tuhoisa (fi), destruktiivinen (fi)
• French: destructif (fr)
• German: destruktiv (de), schädlich (de), zerstörend (de)
• Greek: καταστροφικός (el) m (katastrofikós), καταστρεπτικός (el) m (katastreptikós), αφανιστικός (el) (afanistikós)

  Ancient: ὀλέθριος (oléthrios), ὀλοός (oloós), δηλητήριος (dēlētḗrios)

• Hebrew: הרסני (harsany)
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: destruktív (hu), kártékony (hu), pusztító (hu)
• Ido: please add this translation if you can
• Interlingua: destructive
• Irish: urbhadhach, arganach, sladach

  Old Irish: bráthamail

• Italian: distruttivo (it)
• Japanese: 破壊的な (hakaiteki na)
• Korean: 파괴적 (ko) (pagoejeok)
• Latin: exitiosus, exitiābilis, destructivus
• Persian: مخرب (fa)
• Polish: destrukcyjny (pl) m
• Portuguese: destrutivo (pt)
• Romanian: distructiv (ro) m or n, distrugător (ro) m or n
• Russian: разруши́тельный (ru) (razrušítelʹnyj)
• Sanskrit: हिंस्र (sa) (hiṃsra)
• Scottish Gaelic: millteach, sgriosach, sgriosail
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ра́зо̄ран, де̏структӣван, ру̀шилачкӣ

  Roman: rázōran (sh), dȅstruktīvan (sh), rùšilačkī (sh)

• Spanish: destructivo (es)
• Swedish: destruktiv (sv)
• Tagalog: mapanira, mapangwasak
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Telugu: please add this translation if you can
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: yıkıcı (tr), tahripkâr
• Ukrainian: руйнівний (rujnivnyj), деструктивний (destruktyvnyj)
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• Zulu: please add this translation if you can

causing breakdown

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: hajottava (fi)
• Greek: καταλυτικός (el) m (katalytikós)
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Swedish: destruktiv (sv)

lossy

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: peruuttamaton (fi), destruktiivinen (fi)
• Russian: please add this translation if you can

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɛs.tʁyk.tiv/

Adjective

destructive

1. feminine singular of destructif

Latin

Adjective

dēstrūctīve

1. vocative masculine singular of dēstrūctīvus